Scissor Skills Crash Course (with Gift Wrap!)

Teaching kids how to use scissors and exploring scissor skills is one of my favorite things to work on as a school-based Occupational Therapist.  There are so many creative ways to address the skills needed for accuracy in cutting with a pair of scissors.  Today, I’m sharing everything you need to know about cutting with scissors.  I’ve got all of the skills a child need in order to be successful.  I’ve got great ways to practice teaching your child to cut on lines.  


AND, I’ve got a top secret to share about teaching kids to cut with scissors; Something that will make practicing cutting with scissors frugal and fun.  My secret weapon in teaching kids to cut on the lines?  It’s wrapping paper!  Gift wrap makes the best scissor practice tool because you can get a huge roll for an inexpensive price.  Hit up dollar stores and grab the after season and get ready to snip, snip, snip your way to cutting shapes on lines.  This is your creative Crash Course on teaching kids to cut with scissors!


Want to know more about functional skills like scissor use? Read more here!

Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.


Teach Kids to Cut with Scissors (A Crash Course)

Full disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.


There are many components that go into cutting with scissors.  These are the skill that kids need to master or be developing as they pick up a pair of scissors and can cut a shape.  Using scissors to cut is a developmental progression of skill.  And by that, I mean that as children progress in their development, they achieve more skill and accuracy.  Kids need to gain better control of fine motor and visual perceptual skills as they grow and develop and with that development, comes better use of scissors.  A child with deficits in any of the skill areas needed for using scissors will have difficulty with progression of typical scissor use development.


In this crash course, I’m going to share the skill components that a child needs to cut with scissors and various steps of cutting accuracy.  Not included in this crash course are the developmental ages and stages of scissor use.  That blog post will come at another time!


Skills a child needs to cut with scissors

These are the skill areas that a child needs in order to initiate scissor use and develop their progression toward successfully cutting multiple angled shapes:
Fine Motor Skills Needed for Scissor Use: From dexterity to graded precision, using scissors requires fine motor use skills for scissor use.

  • Prerequisite skills: Before a child can effectively use scissors in a functional manner, prerequisite skills are essential.  These are the functional skills that babies, toddlers, and preschoolers practice and achieve to learn graded muscle movements.  Read more about prerequisite skills here.
  • Open Thumb Web Space: Opening and closing the thumb against the fingers positions the thumb in abduction.  Abduction and adduction are required to open and close the scissor’s blades.  If a child is not able to open and close their thumb due to physical deficits or weakness, they will not be able to cut with typical scissors.  There are many modified versions of scissors out there to assist with this area.  Read more about open thumb web space here.
  • Hand Strength: Cutting with scissors requires strength.  The first stage of this is snipping paper. Children may complain of hand fatigue, not be able to cut thick paper such as construction paper, or may cut paper with short snips of the scissors.  A gross hand grasp is needed for endurance in scissor use. Looking for ways to build hand strength?  Try these creative activities.
  • Visual Motor Skills:  Also called hand-eye coordination, visual motor skills are our ability to position and use our hands in activities that are guided by our vision.  Read more about visual motor skills here.
  • Visual Tracking:  In order to follow a line with scissors, a person must use visual tracking as they move their scissors along the line.  Without this skill, a child will show poor line accuracy and may cut through shapes or across lines multiple times. Read more about visual tracking here.
  • Bilateral Hand Coordination:  This is a skill that is required for so many self-care and functional tasks.  Using scissors to cut a shape is a functional task that requires both hands working together in a fluid manner.  The hands are doing different tasks during the activity of cutting with scissors but both know what the other is doing without the child looking at either hand constantly.  This manner of fluid activity is a mechanism of the brain as both hemispheres communicate in an efficient manner. In scissor skill activities, one hand must hold the scissors as the non-dominant hand holds and rotates the paper. Read more about bilateral coordination here.
    • Hand Dominance: Related to bilateral hand coordination, is hand dominance in scissor use.  A child need an established hand dominance in order to develop fine motor skills that are needed for accuracy with scissor use.  If a child continues to switch hands, there are scissors that can be used with either hand on the market, however, the child will not develop accuracy and fluid scissor cuts as easily with out an established dominant hand.  Read more about hand dominance here.

Try THESE scissors for kids who have a left-right confusion or undefined hand dominance.

Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.

NOTE: THESE are my favorite scissor for kids.


Line Accuracy with Scissor Skills: Teaching Kids to cut on the Lines

Line accuracy when cutting with scissors is greatly dependent on position of the hand on the scissors, as well as all of the areas described above.  Hand positioning and scissor grasp is a developmental progression and typical tearing of paper happens with certain positions.  Typically, a child will developmentally go through certain stages in their scissor skills and as they progress, their accuracy will improve.  

Help Kids Cut with Scissors on the Lines

Now is the time to pull out the wrapping paper that I told you about.  Grab a roll of gift wrap and work on cutting with graded difficulty.
 
Try these scissor practice ideas to work on cutting on the lines.  These ideas progress (mostly) from easiest to most difficult.
 

 

Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
Providing kids with kid-friendly scissors and paper will help with practice.  Kids can practice cutting with scissors as early as you feel comfortable.  It’s important to remember that all children develop differently.  Hand over a pair of scissors and show the child how to snip into the edge of the paper, without lines or shapes.  At this point, the child is only working on the skill areas described above.  This is when wrapping paper makes a great cutting medium.  No more will you go through the piles of construction paper that just get snipped and cut all over the floor.  Use the wrapping paper and let the kids snip away!
 
A strip of wrapping paper (or paper) is a great starting point for practicing line awareness with scissors.  Make the paper strip tin enough that one snip across will cut the paper.  
 
Next, practice cutting into the paper and along a line.  A black dot will provide a visual cue to stop at the end of the line. 
 
Next, provide a strip of paper that is wider and requires several cuts across the page to cut through the line.  This activity works on the child’s ability to open and shut the scissors without choppy cuts for several snips.  (NOTE: Provide a wider strip of paper than is shown in the above picture for more practice of continued cutting!)
 
Finally, provide a strip of paper with lines without stopping dots.  The child must cut along the lines and stop at the end of the line.  These lines are drawn very dark to provide a thicker cutting line, to ensure more accuracy.  
 
 

 

Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
When moving on to cutting shapes, start with squares.  You can draw the square along the edge of the paper to allow the child to cut into the corners from each side.  Then practice cutting a square inside the paper.  Cutting shapes requires the paper to be rotated and turned accurately.  Practice cutting other strait line shapes like triangles and rectangles. 
 
After practicing strait line shapes, introduce cutting curved shapes. 
 

 

Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
Another way to practice line awareness with scissors is to cut curved and multiple angled lines across a strip of paper.  Add in more complex shapes like stars and hearts.
 
Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
When starting on more angled or wavier shapes, provide stopping points with black dots.  These will act as a visual cue and an indication to turn or rotate the page and move the scissors.
 
Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
Finally, practice cutting multiple-angular and curved line shapes.  To start, try drawing a thick black line around the shape to provide a thicker cutting line.  Then, remove the visual cue of the line and cut directly on the lines of the shape.
 
I hope that these scissor skill tips are helpful for you and your little scissor user!
 
Use this scented scissor skills activity to help kids learn graded scissor use in a fun way! 
 
Looking for more ways to use wrapping paper in crafts and activities?  
 
 
 
Scissor skills activities for kids.  These are developmental ways to practice scissor skills and teaching kids to cut on the lines.  Also, all of the skill areas needed in order for kids to accurately cut lines and shapes.
 
 
Our favorite scissor activities and ways to work on the skills needed in scissor skills:
https://www.theottoolbox.com/2015/10/visual-tracking-tips-and-tools-for.html hand strengthening activity
 
 

Working on fine motor skills, visual perception, visual motor skills, sensory tolerance, handwriting, or scissor skills? Our Fine Motor Kits cover all of these areas and more.

Check out the seasonal Fine Motor Kits that kids love:

Or, grab one of our themed Fine Motor Kits to target skills with fun themes:

Want access to all of these kits…and more being added each month? Join The OT Toolbox Member’s Club!

Proprioception Winter Activity Cutting Paper Snowflakes with Kids

This time of year, kids can feel cooped up indoors when the winter weather is too cold to play outside. A proprioception activity that engages children can provide calming or regulating input that is desperately needed.


Cutting paper snowflakes with heavy weight paper like cardstock, cardboard, or several sheets of paper provides proprioceptive input to the hands.  

Practice scissor skills and provide proprioception with this miniature cupcake liner snowflakes craft for kids.

Paper Snowflakes Prorprioception Activity for Kids

This post contains affiliate links.


While it is difficult to cut heavy paper after it’s been folded many times into a paper snowflake, you can use two sheets of paper.  Just the added layer provides a bit more work for the hands.  


Try adding a few layers of tissue paper to your snowflakes.  This is a great warm up activity for kids to complete before handwriting.  


Read more about proprioception and the hands here.


Additional ways to provide proprioceptive input to the hands through making paper snowflakes:


Cut aluminum foil.
Use two (or more) Rainbow colored cupcake liners.
Cut thin white felt.
Make snowflakes with several paper napkins stacked up.
Cut snowflakes from wax paper.
Several coffee filters stacked up.


Practice scissor skills and provide proprioception with this miniature cupcake liner snowflakes craft for kids.

For our proprioception activity, we cut several cupcake liners stacked up.  If you use the miniature sized cupcake liners, like we did, you can really work on scissor skills on a small scale.  Fold only two cupcake liners together in half and in half again.  You will end up with a triangle with a curved outer edge.  Now start snipping triangles out of the cupcake liners.  This activity provides proprioceptive input to the hands and is an exercise in precision in scissor skills


These brightly colored snowflakes will add a pop of color to a dreary winter window.  Simply tape them up with double sided tape.  You can also tape them along a string to make a fun and cheery wintery garland.  Have fun making miniature snowflakes and working on proprioception and scissor skills!

Practice scissor skills and provide proprioception with this miniature cupcake liner snowflakes craft for kids.


This post is part of our January Calendar activities where we’re sharing proprioceptive and vestibular activities for each day.  See all of the posts here

Are you looking for more information on Vestibular or Proprioception (and ALL of the sensory systems) and how they affect functional skills, behavior, and the body’s sensory systems?  This book, Sensory Lifestyle Handbook, will explain it all.  Activities and Resources are included.  Get it today and never struggle to understand or explain Sensory Integration again.

 
Looking for MORE scissor skills or proprioception activities?  These are some of our favorite ways to play: 

Use Fall Leaves to Practice Scissor Skills and Line Awareness

I have a small obsession with helping kids learn how to use scissors.  It was one of my favorite areas to work on in the school-based Occupational Therapy setting.  (And I’ve got a few scissor skills activities to show for it!)  


Today’s activity is all about scissors, cutting on lines, and leaves.  This Fall, use those pretty leaves before they are covered with snow and practice cutting on lines.  

Practice scissor skills with Fall leaves to work on line awareness and scissor control.

This scissor skills activity is completely easy.  Go outside and gather some pretty fall leaves.  Like our leaf hole punch activity (also very good for working on scissor skills), you want leaves that are not crunchy and are freshly fallen.  You might want to gather leaves that are still on the tree for easier cutting of lines.  If you are working simply on the snipping of scissors, totally go for those crunchy leaves.  They provide a fun auditory feedback to the snipping of scissors and fun Fall confetti!


Cutting the leaves gets you whiffs of the leaves, too.  What a great way to incorporate the sense of smell into a scissor activity.


Practice scissor skills with Fall leaves to work on line awareness and scissor control.

Practice line awareness with scissors using Fall leaves

Use the leaf veins to practice line awareness.  I drew lines on the leaves for the kids to practice cutting along, but you can use just the lines of the leaves for older kids.  Holding the small leaf and snipping along the veins is a fantastic bilateral hand coordination activity for kids.  When cutting with scissors, bilateral hand coordination is essential for the assisting hand to move the paper accordingly as the dominant hand snips with scissors. 

Cutting along lines in simple and complex shapes is an issue when visual perceptual skills are difficult for a child.  They might demonstrate difficulties with cutting within a line.  Cutting choppy lines is apparent when a child has poor scissor control or visual motor skills with tools like scissors. 

Cutting leaves is a creative scissor activity (Find a ton more creative scissor activities here!) and will be a hit with your kids this Fall.  Save it for spring and cut those green leaves, too! 


Use this scented scissor skills activity to help kids learn graded scissor use in a fun way! 

Practice scissor skills with Fall leaves to work on line awareness and scissor control.
Try these scissor activities:

Scissor Skills Activities for Kids

Scissor skills were one of my favorite things to work on as a pediatric occupational therapist.  There are so many fun ways to practice the skill of cutting lines. and the areas that need working on for improved accuracy can vary so mcu from child to child.  Lines, paper thickness, and even scissors can be moditfied.  Hand strengthening activities can happen.  Line difficulty can be graded in intensity.  Kids can get excited when they get to cut out a favorite charater or shape.  Practice can happen by cutting string, straws, fun paper, play dough, therapy-putty, index cards, tissue paper…and so much more.  This was one fun area when it came to tips from the OT!
 
The features from this week’s Share It Saturday link up had some great scissor cutting activities to share.  These posts had great activities for scissor control, practice, and just festive fun!  Check out the posts below for lots of great scissor using ideas.
Scissor Skills Activities for Kids

Scissor Skills Activities for Kids:

Valentine’s Day Cutting Skills Activity Tray from Little Bins for Little Hands

Cutting Skills Sun Craft from De tout et de rien: Activités pour le Préscolaire

Cut Snowflakes from Newspaper from Buggy and Buddy

City Landscape Collage from EduArt 4 Kids

Improving Scissor Skills with Play Dough from The OT Toolbox

Cutting Foam Beads for Scissor Use

Use Stickers to Help with Scissor Skills